Also don’t forget that the 3rd annual Bull Spec / RTSFS (Research Triangle Science Fiction Society) holiday party is coming up very soon, on Sunday December 9. More info below.

In local publishing news, the biggest news in November came in two forms. First, the announcement that publisher Angry Robot will publish two postapocalyptic novels by local author Jay Posey, and second that Wake Forest, NC-based publisher Baen published (just now!) The Collected Kessel in ebook, with all-new story notes. Check out both!

While this weekend and all December are packed with events, January stands alone (other than a veritable pile of new local and regional author books) with illogiCon. But February is also starting to fill up, with events bringing Kim Harrison, Cory Doctorow, and Brandon Sanderson (with Harriet McDougal!) to town, along with the Nevermore Film Festival.

In Bull Spec news, all the fiction is edited, illustration and layout is started, and finally issue #8 really, really is coming soon. Really. This time, I mean it. Meanwhile, the website gained two new features, in addition to the ongoing The Hardest Part guest author column and Andrew Neal’s Negative Zone: a very, er, irregular (and irregularly scheduled) column by one Harry Tortilla, and a new ongoing weekly column The Exploding Spaceship by Gerald and Angela Blackwell. I hope you’re enjoying the new web content, and I’ll see you out and about.

11-13 (Friday to Sunday) — illogiCon 2 will be held at the Embassy Suites of Raleigh-Durham/Research Triangle on January 11-13, 2013, with writer guest of honor Tim Powers and webcomic guest of honor Garth Graham, and toastmaster Mark L. Van Name: http://www.illogicon.com/

NEW: 20 (Wednesday) 7:30 pm – Quail Ridge Books again hosts best-selling author Brandon Sanderson, this time for the conclusion of The Wheel of Time series, A Memory of Light. In addition, special guest Harriet McDougal will be joining Sanderson for the event. More info: https://www.facebook.com/events/393451974063637/

27-30 (Thursday to Sunday) — ConTemporal 2013 at the North Raleigh Hilton, beginning with the Thursday evening guest of honor dinner and continuing all weekend, as this Steampunk-themed convention is back for a second year. More info: http://contemporal.org/

NOVEMBER 2013

NEW-NEW: 9-10 (Saturday and Sunday) — NC Comicon will be returning to the Durham Convention Center. “Twice the space, four times the fun. It’s exponential.”

CHECK OUT

UPCOMING EVENTS

October 27 (Thursday) 6 pm -- Flyleaf Books hosts Megan Shepherd and John Claude Bemis for their new middle-grade novelsThe Secret Horses of Briar Hill and The Wooden Prince. Megan Shepherd grew up in her family’s independent bookstore in the Blue Ridge Mountains. She is the author of several acclaimed young adult books, and The Secret Horses of Briar Hill is her debut middle-grade novel. Shepherd lives and writes on a 125-year-old farm outside Asheville, North Carolina, with her husband, two cats, and a dog. John Claude Bemis is an award-winning author, musician, and educator. His novels include The Prince Who Fell from the Sky and the Clockwork Dark Trilogy. He received the Excellence in Teaching Award from UNC Chapel Hill’s School of Education for his work in the schools as an author-educator and served as North Carolina’s Piedmont Laureate in 2013. John lives with his wife and daughter in Hillsborough, NC.